Heroes Know When to Sacrifice
by Jkoo7
Summary: This is if Apollo succeeds in killing himself in The Burning Maze. Something no one should ever do, not even to save your friends. Heavy spoilers for The Burning Maze
1. I'm not Joking

**Hey, this is my first story, but I'll try to do my best.**

**This takes place at the end of The Burning Maze.**

**So please, do yourself a favor and don't read this until you have read The Burning Maze.**

**Remember, this is Fanfiction, so only some of what happens are canon.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, Rick Riordan does.**

Chapter #1

I'm not Joking

**Apollo POV**

I fixed my eyes on the twin cyclones, hoping that Jason and Meg had somehow escaped. They had not, but strangely as if by silent agreement, they seemed to have switched roles.

Rather than raging in response to Piper being struck, Jason now floated deathly still, his eyes closed, his face like stone. Meg, on the other hand, clawed at her ventus cage, screaming words I couldn't hear. Her clothes were in tatters. Her face was crosshatched with a dozen bleeding cuts, but she didn't seem to care. She kicked and punched and threw packets of seeds into the maelstrom, causing festive bursts of pansies and daffodils among the shrapnel.

By the imperial dais, Medea had turned pale and sweaty. Countering Piper's charmspeak must have taxed her, but that gave me no comfort.

Reverb and his guards would soon be back, bearing the hearts of the emperor's enemies.

A cold thought flooded through me. _The hearts of his enemies._

I felt like I had been backhanded. The emperor needed me alive, at least for the moment. Which meant my only leverage…

My expression must have been priceless. Caligula burst out laughing.

"Apollo, you look like someone stepped on your favorite lyre!" He tutted. "You think you've had it bad? I grew up as a hostage in my Uncle Tiberius's palace. Do you have _any_ idea how evil that man was? I woke up every day expecting to e assassinated, just like the rest of my family. I became a consummate actor. Whatever Tiberius needed me to be, I was. And I _survived_. But you? Your life has been golden from start to finish. You don't have the stamina to be a mortal."

He turned to Medea. "Very well, sorceress! You may turn your little blenders up to puree and kill the two prisoners. Then we will deal with Apollo."

Medea smiled. "Gladly."

"Wait!" I screamed, pulling an arrow from my quiver.

The emperor's remaining guards leveled their spears, but the emperor shouted, "HOLD!"

I didn't try to draw my bow. I didn't attack Caligula. Instead, I turned the arrow inward and pressed the point against my chest.

Caligula's smile evaporated. He examined me with thinly veiled contempt. "Lester...what are you doing?"

"Let my friends go," I said. "All of them. Then you can have me."

The emperor's eyes gleamed like a strix's. "And if I don't?"

I summoned my courage and issued a threat I never could have imagined in my previous four thousand years of life. "I'll kill myself."

**(This is where chapter 31 ends and continues to chapter 32 for those of you who are still confused on where this is taking place)**

_OH, NO, THOU SHALT NOT_, buzzed a voice in my head.

My noble gesture was ruined when I realized I had, once again, drawn the Arrow of Dodona by mistake. It shook violently in my hand, no doubt making me look even more terrified than I was. Nevertheless, I held it fast.

Caligula narrowed his eyes. "You would never. You don't have a self-sacrificing instinct in your body!"

"Let them go." I pressed the arrow against my skin, hard enough to draw blood. "Or you'll never be the sun god."

The arrow hummed angrily, _KILLETH THYSELF WITH SOME OTHER _

_PROJECTILE, KNAVE. OF COMMON MURDER WEAPONS, I AM NONE! _

"Oh, Medea," Caligula called over his shoulder, "if he kills himself in this fashion, can you still do your magic?"

"You know I can't," she complained. "It's a complicated ritual! We can't have him murdering himself in some sloppy way before I'm prepared."

"Well, that's mildly annoying." Caligula sighed. "Look, Apollo, you can't expect this will have a happy ending. I am not Commodus. I'm not playing a game. Be a nice boy and let Medea kill you in the correct way. Then I'll give these others a painless death. That's my best offer."

I decided Caligula would make a terrible car salesman.

Next to me, Piper shivered on the floor, her neural pathways probably overloaded by trauma. Crest had wrapped himself in his own ears. Jason continued to meditate in his of swirling shrapnel, though I couldn't imagine he would achieve nirvana under those circumstances.

Meg yelled and gesticulated at me, perhaps telling me not to be a fool and put down the arrow. I took no pleasure in the fact that, for once, I couldn't hear her orders.

The emperor's guards stayed where they were, gripping their spears.

Incitatus munched his oats like he was at the movies.

"Last chance," Caligula said.

Somewhere behind me, at the top of the ramp, a voice called, "My lord!"

Caligula looked over. "What is it, Flange? I'm a little busy here."

"N-news, my lord."

"Later."

"Sire, it's about the northern attack."

I felt a surge of hope. The assault on New Rome was happening tonight. I didn't have the good hearing of a pandos, but the hysterical urgency in Flange's tone was unmistakable. He was not bringing the emperor good news.

Caligula's expression soured. "Come here, then. And don't touch the idiot with the arrow."

The pandos Flange shuffled past me and whispered something in the emperor's ear. Caligula may have considered himself a consummate actor, but he didn't do a good job of hiding his disgust.

"How disappointing." He tossed Meg's golden rings aside like they were worthless pebbles. "Your sword, please, Flange."

"I—" Flange fumbled for his khanda. "Y-yes, lord."

Caligula examined the blunt serrated blade, then returned it to its owner with a vicious force, plunging it into the poor pandos's gut. Flange howled as he crumbled to dust.

Caligula faced me. "Now, where were we?"

"Your northern attack," I said. "Didn't go so well?"

It was foolish of me to goad him, but I couldn't help it. At that moment, I wasn't any more rational than Meg McCaffrey—I just wanted to hurt Caligula, to smash everything he owned to dust.

He waved aside my question. "Some jobs I have to do myself. That's fine. You'd think a Roman demigod camp would obey orders from a Roman emperor, but alas."

"The Twelfth Legion has a long history of supporting good emperors," I said. "And of deposing bad ones."

Caligula's left eye twitched. "Oh, Boost, where are you?"

On the port side, one of the horse-groomer pandai dropped his brush in alarm. "Yes, Lord?"

"Take your men," Caligula said. "Spread the word. We break formation immediately and sail north. We have unfinished business in the Bay Area."

"But, sire..." Boost looked at me as if deciding whether I was enough of a threat to warrant leaving the emperor without his remaining guards. "Yes, sire."

The rest of the pandai shuffled off, leaving Incitatus without anyone to hold his golden oat bucket.

"Hey, C," said the stallion. "Aren't you putting the cart before the horse? Before we head off to war, you've got to finish your business with Lester."

"Oh, I will," Caligula promised. "Now, Lester, we both know you're not going to—"

He lunged with blinding speed, making a grab for the arrow. I'd been anticipating that. Before he could stop me, I cleverly plunged the arrow into my chest. Ha! That would teach Caligula to underestimate me!

Dear reader, it takes a great deal of willpower to intentionally harm yourself. And not the good kind of willpower—the stupid, reckless kind you should never try to summon, even in an effort to save your friends.

As I stabbed myself, I was shocked by the sheer amount of pain I experienced. Why did killing yourself have to hurt so much?

My bone marrow turned to lava. My lungs filled with hot wet sand. Blood soaked my shirt and I fell to my knees, gasping and dizzy. The world spun around me as if the entire throne room had become a giant ventus prison. And I collapsed on my right side, legs and arms tucked in as if I was going to go to sleep on my bed at The Me Cabin.

VILLAINY! The Arrow of Dodona's voice buzzed in my mind (and now also in my chest). THOU DIDST NOT JUST IMPALE ME HEREIN! O, VILE, MONSTROUS FLESH!

A distant part of my brain thought it was unfair for him to complain since I was the one dying, but I couldn't have spoken even if I'd wanted to.

Caligula rushed forward. He grabbed the shaft of the arrow, but Medea yelled, "Stop!"

She ran across the throne room and knelt at my side. "Pulling out the arrow could make matters worse! " she hissed.

"He stabbed himself in the chest," Caligula said. "How can it be worse?"

"Fool," she muttered. I wasn't sure whether the comment was directed at me or Caligula. "I don't want him to bleed out." She removed a black silk bag from her belt, pulled out a stoppered glass vial, and shoved the bag at

Caligula. "Hold this."

She uncorked the vial and poured its contents over the entry wound.

COLD! complained the Arrow of Dodona. COLD! COLD!

Personally, I didn't feel a thing. The searing pain had not, in fact, lessened in any way, and my eyelids grew increasingly heavy.

Medea slapped my face. "Can't have you dying on us yet Apollo," she glanced at my chest and scowled.

Incitatus trotted over. Or, at least I assumed it was Incitatus-it was hard to focus on anyone's distinguishing features. "Whoa, he really did it. That's a horse of a different color." Yep, definitely Incitatus.

"He wasn't kidding," Medea growled. "He pierced his left lung. My serum should keep him alive for a bit more, but not enough for us to get to the maze with and complete the incantation in time."

DOST THOU THINK I WOULD FAIN TO ALLOW MY GLORIOUS PARSONAGE TO BE EMBEDDED IN THE DISHONORED AND DISGUSTING HEART OF LESTER? The arrow intoned from within my rib cage. NAY, I HATH SWERVED AND WEAVED AND AVOIDED THE UNHOLY MUSCLE. HOWEVER, I DOST FAIL TO AVOID EVEN THE SECOND MOST DISHONORABLE OBSTACLE IN MY PATH!

I made a mental note to give the arrow a lesson on the muscle structure of the human body if I got out of this.

Medea glanced at Caligula, "I have a more powerful potion, it won't _heal_ the wound, but it will postpone his end for maybe half an hour at best. But there is a side effect."

"What type of side effect?" Caligula glared at me with such determination in his eyes, it was as if saying "_If you don't die my way, you're not dying at all" _He said another thing, but I could only make out "I don't want him to…." before the rest of his words turned jumbled and unrecognizable.

_You're dying. _The thought raced through my head like an arrow. _Medea won't be able to heal you._ _Your friends won't be freed. Your death will be for nothing. _I swallowed back the bile taste in my mouth which lead to a painful fit of coughing.

My vision was blurry, my breathing turned ragged. Everyone around me was just blurry silhouettes. I wished I didn't hit my lung. It was a scary thing, to have something you've been doing your whole life taken away from you.

I tried my best to make out what Medea and Caligula's silhouettes were saying, but my ears betrayed me and only gave me. "Sight…aware...mind awake…had gorgons blood...heal...gone...do it."

The last one sent shivers down my spine as their tones then turned angry and louder. I glanced at my friends. I knew where their blurry silhouettes were, but couldn't make out their expressions. I offered them a dry smile that probably looked more like a grimace. I focused on where Jason, Meg and their cyclones should be. But I only saw one of the two.

It would seem as if Medea's argument with the emperor and trying to heal me took too much out of her concentration and forgot about keeping my friends imprisoned. But instead of helping out Piper, or getting their weapons, they were just standing there, not doing anything useful.

I looked at the blonde silhouettes, which I assumed to be Jason. I tried to tilt my head in the direction of Crest and Piper, but I substituted it for meeting the silhouettes of his eyes and glancing meaningfully in the direction of Piper and Crest briefly.

I looked back at my friend. "You need to leave _now_. Help them, Jason, help them." I whispered.

It was unbelievable how he could've heard me at such a distance, with the argument going on above me, but he seemed to understand and the silhouette of his head bobbed up and down.

I looked once again at Medea and Caligula, who, unsurprisingly, had ended their argument and then proceeded to rub a golden substance on Medea's right palm.

One of the few things saw that would stay with me forever was Jason picking up Piper, bridal style, and Meg helping Crest to his feet and helping him over to the exit. There was no one left to stop them after all. The only ones left in the room were Incitatus, Medea and the emperor, who were all focused on me.

I once again gave them a smile, hoping that they wouldn't be idiots and do something to attract the enemies' attention.

Medea knelt in front of me, blocking my view of the others. She took her dripping with golden hand and pressed it on the area around the arrow.

_WHAT HATH YOU DONE WITCH? PLACED MINT ICE CREAM AROUND ME? THOU KNOWEST THAT IT IS VILLAINY TO PLACE THE MOST GLORIOUS THING SO CLOSE TO ME, YET DOST NOT PROVIDE A WAY FOR ME TO CONSUME IT!_

I wondered if an arrow could even 'consume' anything. Or why it would make that connection to mint.

You know how when you eat mint, and it has a bit of burning to the flavor?

That's what it felt like.

I let out a groan as the burning intensified. "That should start working soon, but we should probably finish up with the other…" Medea stopped abruptly. I heard her gasp and whip around, probably expecting to find my friends, swords drawn, ready to fight.

_Ha, _I thought _my friends aren't _that _big of idiots. _

It was hard to describe what happened next, but I'll try my best.

A blast of wind blast Caligula, Medea and Incitatus and threw all three back. Or, at least Incitatus was _pushed_ back. He kind of tripped over my body and kept sliding across the floor. And by my body, I meant my head.

Without Medea blocking my view, I finally got a clear view of my friends.

There, looking tired, hurt, and ready to fight, were Jason, Meg, Piper, and Crest. Weapons were drawn, and glaring daggers at the villains behind me.

_Well, _I thought at the world around me turned black, _My friends _are _that big of idiots._

Ok, Thank you for reading all of this, it's my first Fanfiction, and I will warn you that I have no tolerance for plaugerisum. This was written in the summer of 2019, so any after, you can tell were based off mine.

However, there is a lot of stories out there, and I tried to see if there is already a story on this and couldn't find one, so if you think that you could change the story a bit, just let me know and I'll back off.


	2. Getting Distracted

**Hey, it's me. Once again reminding you that after tomorrow, I won't be home for another week and probably will forget about it for a few days so just be patient with me.**

**Once again, if you haven't read all of The Trials of Apollo, please read it. You will regret it if you don't.**

**I don't own these characters, Rick Riordan does, good for him.**

**Chapter 2**

**Getting distracted**

**Third POV**

Jason ran, swinging his gladius and rushing forward, sending a call out to Tempest. Piper and Crest followed close behind. Meg, however, rushed to Apollo's side and started examining the arrow implanted in his chest.

Leaving no time for hesitation, she got a good grip on the shaft and yanked it out. Apollo let out a moan and went deathly still. A pool of blood starting to form around his body while Meg searched frantically for something to bandage him up. She settled on a dark red curtain and ripped it off its hanger.

_He'll be fine, _Meg told herself. _Apollo just needs to get out of here. He's a god, he can't die._

_But he's not a god right now, _the rational part of her countered. _He's not even a demigod, he won't be able to drink nectar or eat ambrosia._

_Shut up! _she snapped back, and, of course, the voice didn't even want to disagree with her.

"NO!" Caligula screamed. "I'M TOO CLOSE! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I WON'T LET YOU!" he rushed forward, picking up a sword lying on the ground. He met Jason's gladius in the air. Their blades clashed, scattering sparks.

Caligula pushed against his sword and met Jason's eyes. "Apollo is _mine, _leave now, you'll live, and Apollo will at least accomplish something important in his miserable life," he growled through his teeth. "He couldn't even make his own father proud of him, just like he let down anyone he ever cared about."

Jason pushed him away. Stumbling, Caligula backed up, glaring at Jason before rushing over to help Medea and Incitatus.

Meg, meanwhile, was setting the unconscious Apollo down and leaning him against a pillar. She shook his shoulder, eyes begging him to wake up. She tore up the curtain into long strips and bandaged his torso. She tightened the bandage and tied a tight knot to keep the cloth in place before placing the bleeding arrow into his quiver. Why anyone would even _want_ to use the arrow again was beyond anyone else. But Meg knew better, when Apollo woke up, he wouldn't want the first thing to find out that his talking arrow was split in half by his friends, or left on the boat, or thrown into the lake.

Jason rushed forward to join Piper and Crest, who were working together to take out Incitatus and Medea. Medea looked exhausted, sweat dripping from her forehead as she tried in vain to summon her own venti spirits to send at the demigods, but kept getting distracted with countering Piper's charmspeak on Incitatus, who had Crest on his back, hitting the horse's head with a makeshift club that looked a lot like a golden shoe.

Jason arrived at Piper's side, just in time to block a blow from Caligula, who came out of nowhere.

Medea glanced desperately at Caligula, who appeared at her side. "We need to leave now! Get back-up, maybe retreat into the maze, but there isn't enough time to take these brats out and do the ritual-"

"NO! You're not getting out of your deal that easily, I'll be a god before tomorrow's sunset, and I'll kill anyone who stands in my way," he growled at Medea before launching into another heated argument.

Tempest chose just that moment to send a gust of wind that pushed the emperor away from the demigod.

"Thanks, bud," Jason said, grinning, before hopping on Tempest's back.

Caligula broke from his fight with Medea and glanced around, searching for his own horse and found him, lying unconscious in the middle of the floor with Crest and Meg proudly standing over him. What Meg was doing over there, he had no idea, but anyone could see that Apollo's condition couldn't be helped by Meg. She's a 12-year-old after all, they aren't that educated on medication.

"Common Incitatus, really?" Caligula complained like a brother whose sister was giving him a hard time about his cookie-eating-habits. Which, for him, would probably like that a lot.

Medea grumbled something that the demigods couldn't make out, but it sparked up their argument again.

Meg and Crest jogged over to Piper and Jason, taking advantage of the distraction the enemies were making for themselves, no doubt satisfied with how many hits they landed on Incitatus.

"Meg? What are you doing here? I thought you were taking care of Apollo." Piper asked.

"Apollo's fine, I managed to wrap him up and put pressure on the wound, but we need to get him to Plam Springs _now._ Without Medea, he can't last much longer." Meg responded a little bit of anger lased into her explanation.

If Piper noticed the anger, she didn't let it show, and instead glared at their enemies still arguing.

"Surrender now, we have you trapped, alone, and with no way to escape. It's over." Meg growled, gesturing toward the pillars she pushed over to block the exits.

Caligula's glare no doubt sent shivers down their spine. "You've won _nothing_. I'll make you pay for this, and when I'm done, you won't have anywhere to call home." he snarled before glaring at Medea and all three of them, including the horse, burst into flames and disappeared, leaving no trace they were ever there...

...Except for the burning inferno that started to grow and spread towards the hunched form of the glorious Lester Papadopoulos.

The flames moved so fast, it was as if they were a river themselves. Quickly surrounding Apollo's limp form before his friends could do anything.

"Apollo!" Meg screamed and ran as fast as she could with the rest of their group toward the circle of flames surrounding their friend. The circle got smaller, as the flames grew larger and slowly inched closer to the wounded boy.

_**You replaced me**_, a voice vibrated through the hall. _**How does it feel to be powerless Apollo?**_ Heilos asked. Apollo did not respond, except for a few twitches of his neck.

"What's happening?" Meg asked. "Why can't we hear them?"

"Heilos must be continuing the conversation in Apollo's dream." Jason guessed, hoping that it was going well.

The flames grew closer and closer to Apollo until they were a mere two feet away from him, but they did slow their attack on the former sun god as the conversation continued. The voice seemed to put the demigods on hold while he closed off his conversation to only his successor and himself.

_**Leave. **_The word seemed to free the air the demigods had been holding. _**You have your bargaining chip. Kill the witch Apollo, you know what to do. Good luck, demigods. **_It echoed around the room as the fire died down and left a smoldering floor behind.

**Ok,**

**So when I got on the computer after a week of COJCLDS Girls Camp, I did not expect so many views, and definitely not as many likes or follows.**

**Thank you 'thewostisgoingtohappen,' 'DataArchiver,' and 'Celly Victoria.' for your following me and favoriting me. Not sure I deserve it after only one chapter and one week… BUT, I do appreciate it and hope I can write the right stuff to deserve the great thing you gave me.**

**As always, keep smiling, and I'll post the next chapter as fast as I can.**

**-Jkoo7**


	3. Escaping

_**(7/2/19)**_

_**Ok, so the day I posted the last chapter, In the time-space where I was typing the 'thank yous' and publishing the chapter, someone favorited my story and I didn't get to thank them.**_

_**So,**_

_**Thank you 'Snowst5367' for favoriting it, and I typed this the second I realized this, (which was not long after I posted chapter two, like a minute, I promise you) I wrote this so I wouldn't forget to thank you.**_

_**I will warn anyone who follows and/or favorites my story after today, will probably not get mentioned, but I will try my best to recognize you in some way. I **__**do**_ _**appreciate this, but please don't get mad if I don't thank you or mention you.**_

_**If you review my stories, please try to have constructive criticism instead of insults and offensive comments. I did warn you that, (depending on the insults) I will either turn off comments or stop writing altogether.**_

_**I'm going to write most of the chapter today so I'm gonna get started.**_

_**In case anyone doesn't know what POV means, it means 'Point Of View'**_

**Chapter #3**

**Escaping**

**Jason's POV**

Meg was the first to react.

She rushed through the burned floor, barely even slowing down as she knelt at Apollo's side. The others and I followed her example. When we reached him, Apollo was awake, curled up with his knees to his chest. Dried blood was splattered on his pants and the make-shift bandage was more than a little bit charred. He was shivering uncontrollably and the scariest part of him was his eyes. They were alert, yet when he looked in my direction, they didn't seem to see me, and were glazed with unrecognition. His blue eyes that used to spark with humor and amiability, were white.

"Apollo… Apollo are you ok?" Meg queried.

"M… Meg?" his voice quivered. "I… I can't see you… is everyone ok? Jason? Piper? Crest?" he uncurled his limbs and winched as he did so. "Ow!"

"Calm down, just...stay still. We're gonna get out of here, I promise, just hold on a little bit longer."

"I can't see you… Why can't I see you? Why can't I see _anything_, Meg?" I could recognize he was starting to freak out when he repeated the question eight more times.

Meg turned to me. "Can't you... I don't know, blast a hole in the wall with some lightning?"

I smiled, "Hopefully, I could do more than a tiny hole, just give me a second." I stepped backward, away from the group and closed my eyes.

_Dad,_ I thought, _We could really use your help, Apollo needs help __**now**__. So, if you could help us out, that would mean a lot._

I was surprised when Zeus's answer came quicker than I expected. Electricity buzzed around the lightbulbs and lightning crashed all around the harbor. Explosions sounded outside the boat and hopefully, they were from the other Caligula's boats. I was mere five seconds before more than a dozen of the bolts started to hit boat #12, and what was once beautiful decoration, was now burning wood spreading throughout the area, sending smoke into the air, only to exit the room via a hole in the wall beside us.

When I looked back at my friends, they were staring at me in shock. Only to realize that they were wasting precious time they could spend escaping.

"Is everyone ok? That was Jason, right? Dad's not mad at me?" Apollo fired the questions at us.

"Good job Jason," Piper answered all of Apollo's questions at once without even looking at him. "Now that's done, could you fly Apollo and Crest can use his ears. Is Tempest still here?"

She got her answer when breezes of wind fanned the flames around us and took the shape of a horse and raised up his front legs.

"Good, Meg, hop on Tempest please," Meg was resistant to leave Apollo's side, but she complied to Piper's charmspeak. Piper jumped on behind her and the two leaned as forward as they could to duck under the cloud of smoke that was forming above them. And without any hesitation, Tempest raced out of the room and towards the shore. Crest cast a remorseful look at the rigged form of Apollo, flapped his ears, and sped through the hole. As I assisted Apollo to his feet and tried to insert him in a secure location to move, he let out a few painful breaths but inhaled smoke and went into a fit of painful coughing.

I settled on carrying him bridal style. He was barely heavy, which I supposed was from blood loss, but I didn't want to think about that. He was going to be fine. Dad wouldn't just let him die for a tiny mistake. He was going to be fine.

I wish I hadn't lied to myself, but I did.

And I believed it.

"Hang in there Apollo, we'll get out of this, just keep breathing till we can get you help," I said to him, hoping his hearing didn't leave as well as his sight.

"Jason…" he gasped after his seizure. "I.. I need my ukulele… need to transfer-" The rest of his sentence was lost in coughing up smoke, but I got what he needed.

I spotted his combat ukulele across the room, and luckily, the fire had not spread that far yet. I rushed into an awkward jog in the direction of the instrument. My lungs and eyes burned from smoke in the air, but I reached my destination. As if Apollo could sense it, He stretched down with his left hand and got a grip on the neck of it.

"Jason…" his grin made it clear he was puzzled but relieved. "I..I can see it." it was barely a whisper, but Jason heard it, despite the loud noises around them signaling that their time was almost up. Apollo looked up, and I was shocked to see Apollo meet my eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" an idea came to my mind as I could see the fear leaving his eyes with strength and resolution substituting it. "Can… can you see me?" I queried. But before I got my answerer, a flood of water rushed towards us and almost naturally, without any strain or concentration needed, I called on the winds and they whisked us out of the sinking ship.

After we exited the bridge of submerging ships, the wind's speed died down and seemed to lose adrenaline. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the full force of holding both myself and Apollo in the air.

_Common Jason, you got this. _I repeated over and over in my head. Although I could continue this for a while, flying all the way back to shore was going to be a challenge. We were about 3 miles away from the shore and going at about 11 miles per hour by the wind. I could see mortals watching the bridge of ships go up in flames behind us. I wondered what they were seeing through the mist. Would it be the same thing?

"I can." Apollo informed me."See you, I mean. But... I can't at the same time, That probably seems crazy, but that's what it's like." his head turned to the ukulele in his hand. "When I look at this, it lights up my field of vision, like when you close your eyes and look at the sun, it's not dark anymore, I can feel it's future, it's red, yet bright, like it's going to do good things, but bad things will happen before the good things will. I can't explain it, but it scares me, the light, but it seems so peaceful…" he gasped. "It's calling to me."

He might've overlooked that he was in the air because he started to jerk as if trying to get away from the object in his hand. And I had much difficulty moving him over my head and into a more secure form of carrying him. I wrapped my arm around his right leg and got a grip on his right wrist.

_Thanks, Coach Hedge. _I was suddenly very grateful for the rescue exercises my old coach gave us at my old school.

Apollo tried to throw the instrument away from him but gave up in a burst of frustration when his hand wouldn't unlock. He wiggled and struggled, making it more difficult to hold him. And when he started to slip off my shoulder, I couldn't take it any longer I tried to put an end to it.

"Apollo, please, stop." I pleaded. "You're going to fall-what do you mean 'it's calling to you?' What's going on?" But my friend ignored me and didn't stop his movement. After a minute of flinching and struggling, he showed some explanation for his actions and started to repeat over and over:

"No, no, they need me, I can't leave. Stop. Not yet. No…" Over and over he pleaded with some imaginary force. _This isn't real, _I told myself. _He's just going hysterical._

But I knew I should at least do something. Tell him everything would be okay. I learned one time in school that someone could survive impalement to the lung, depending on the seriousness of the injury and the age of it, and if the doctor was skilled enough, and if they could get help in time. If, if, if. If I could've controlled the venti traping Meg and I. If we didn't split up, if Caligula had disarmed Apollo, then he wouldn't've had that evil arrow in his hand in the first place. But there was no going back, only forward, and right now, time was not on Apollo's, (or Caligula's) side. Apollo's movements were getting slower and weaker. And it became easier to hold him. His breathing grew ragged and desperate until he stopped struggling entirely.

That scared me the most.

I tried not to think about what might be happening to Apollo or how much time he had left the rest of the way there. It took about 16 minutes since we started flying, but when we arrived at the beach, the rest of our group rushed towards us, faces displaying relief. As I was lying Apollo down on a flat rock, Piper tackled me with a hug.

"Thank the Fates. When the ships exploded and we couldn't see you, I thought..." she gave me a relieved smile. "I'm just glad you're ok." she turned her gaze to Apollo, who, to my relief, was breathing steadily. "Which is more I can say for some of us."

"He started going hysterical after the first few minutes, it was difficult to hold on to him, but he grew tired after moving around so much." I scratched the back of my head. "Ya, he kind of passed out after that." following her gaze to the three figures knelt next to us.

Meg was carefully unwrapping the blood-stained bandage from its place. "I wouldn't do that," I warned her. "He lost enough blood already,"

Meg didn't respond, but Crest, who was kneeling beside her, turned his gaze towards me. "We need to wash it, Piper's father met us here and went to call the ambulance. He was quite alarmed to see his daughter with a concussion and not working on her…. I don't know this term, something called 'study group.'" Now that he mentioned it, I did notice a white bandage wrapped around Piper's head. I suddenly felt rather guilty for not noticing Piper's injury sooner. She was, after all, one of my closest friends.

As if responding to my concern, she lied _(spelling right?-jkoo7)_ down on the sand and closed her eyes. "I'm just going to rest right here, don't try and stop me." she yawned before getting into a more comfortable position and soon her breathing grew steady, a sign that she had succumbed to sleep.

"What we need to do now is to figure out how to go through the labyrinth without the shoes," I said. Meg had finally unwrapped all of the bandages and cut off the cloth around the tissue. She was smearing a chunky beige vaccine on the open wound. Apollo didn't wake up, but sturred a bit and moaned over the sudden pressure on his ripe skin. "What is that? Some sort of potion?" I asked Meg, who was still rubbing the substance on him.

She looked at me, just for a brief moment, her gaze was steady, but I could see tears pooling in her eyes for fear of her friend. It was in that moment I didn't see The Meg McCaffery I knew, but a scared girl afraid of losing someone she cared about. It was just a brief break in her emotions but it proved something.

Meg cared.

In the little time, I've known her, I can only remember her either being angry at our enemies or just being a little kid. But never saw her show anything other than a smile, (or saving his life) to show she cared for us.

"It's not a potion, it's just chopped garlic, it cleanses the blood, lowers blood pressure and kicks up the immune system." she looked down at her mushy hands. "Grover and I got to talk about plants." like It explained everything, which, it kind of did.

"Ok, that's good right?" I waited until she nodded. "Now, do you think the shoes survived the explosions?"

" Shoes are in my quiver if Piper didn't tell, can't believe they didn't take that away, probably thought that won't get away." Apollo grinned sleepily when he noticed our shocked faces at his interruption. He looked up at Meg from his position in her arms and seemed to remember why we looked so surprised when the round of movement caused his wound to seep more blood. His grin vanishing off his face and was replaced with a pained and regretful look. "Ya, about that, if I start drifting off, wake me up, I have some important things to say, and I can't die before I tell you."

**Ok, I know it **_**has **_**been 11 days, but I've been trying to give you guys a longer chapter because the others have been so short and I wanted to give you guys something special, but it's been over a week, and I promised that I would update at soon as possible, so I'm just going to go with this. Ok? OK.**

**So… Like I said, my chapters have been going a little fast, and I apologize for that. But, I wanted the next part of the story to be in its own little (hopefully not little) chapter. And I will say that I looked it up, and garlic does have healing powers. Also, in the bay area, the wind goes actually faster than 11mph. I did do research for this chapter, don't get mad at me, but I was afraid that going any faster in the winds of the Bay ****Area would be too much for our heroes.**

**Also, for the record, I'm female, after getting a message that should've been directed to a male, not me. If you are reading this, And you didn't understand reason #4, it is even truer.**

**As always, keep smiling, and TTYL. (type to you later)**

**-Jk ️ ️7**


	4. No Lies

**Ok, guys, it's a little insane that so many people have looked at my story. Thank you to 'DuneDoodles' for your support and I hope you all are having a good day. I'm open to suggestions for the plot, but I already have an idea I really like, so no promises. My idea is really complicated, so if there are things happening here that contradicts what I already wrote, I apologize but I feel it is necessary for the story. Also, I know Meg doesn't say much as a character, but one of her best friends is about to die, so please don't hate me.**

**I would like to thank '1967HogwartsGoddess' for the amazing review I received. And I just want you to know that this author inspired me a lot with her story called 'Falling For You' and the encouragement I received from this amazing person. I suggest looking at the stories by this author, they are amazing. (2 so far) Plus, it will give you something to read while I try and actually finish this. (#notsponserd) **

**Ok, back to the story, I hope you all like it. And BTW, I thought it was time for one of Apollo's famous haikus. (don't expect a lot more)**

**Don't Lie About This.**

**I Know It Looks Really Bad,**

**The Doctors Won't Win.**

**Third-person POV**

"What are you talking about? You're not going to die. Don't talk like that!" Meg started, gripping his wrist so hard as to cut off circulation. "You can't die, you're a god, they're immortal," she stated, not knowing that she was echoing the thought of Jason from their escape.

"Rule number one," Apollo continued, leaning himself on a nearby rock, not willing to meet Meg's gaze. "There are no lies allowed, no matter how much you want it to be true. I am-was the god of truth after all."

"Apollo stop! You're delusional, the medics are going to be here soon, you're going to be fine!" Meg shouted at the former god. The rest of the group reluctantly nodded their heads to Apollo's requests, also not wanting to meet Meg's gaze. Meg caught on to their actions and glared daggers at the tops of their heads. "Stop ignoring me! He's not dying! Stop lying to me!" she growled, but the pleading tone betrayed her hostile and fearful eyes.

"Meg, please, it's his time. He needs you to let go."Piper pleaded to the twelve-year-old. But meg just shook her head.

"No! He's not dying! Not like this!" she looked to Crest for agreement, but the pandos just looked down and shook his head. Meg looked to Apollo to back her up. "Apollo, please, tell me you're going to be alright."

"Apollo shrugged, almost saying "_Don't ask me, I'm just the former god of healing"_ but the action caused him to wince in pain. "Rule number one Meg, I'm sorry."

"Why would you even do a thing like that? Spite?" Meg questioned angrily.

Apollo finally met her eyes. "Medea was going to kill all four of you. Caligula wants people to mean what they say. He also needed me alive. It was my only bargaining chip…" and he had the nerve to make a painful grin. "Never thought it would hurt so much."

"Never thought it would hurt you that much? What about us Apollo? Did you even think about how much you mean to people?" she slapped his shoulder, got up and spoke. "Did you even think about how much this would hurt me?" Apollo looked away from her.

"I did it for you," he whispered. Meg reeled on him.

"I'm your master, right? You have to do what I say right?" she waited until he nodded his head. "Then I order you to keep breathing until the doctors find a way to fix you!" Apollo flinched but said nothing.

Piper sighed and took pity on him. "Meg, listen to me, Apollo needs our ears, can't you do that for him?" she said. "Fine." Meg spat. "I'll listen to him, but only because he's not going into the maze, and he's the best one of all of us who knows how the oracle works." she looked at Piper. "Happy?" she challenged, finally meeting Piper's eyes. What Piper saw in there, was mirroring the hurt she felt after seeing Jason being pushed from the cliff by that bandit Sciron and into the mouth of Molly, the gigantic turtle. It was one of the worst experiences of her life to watch one of her best friends fall to his doom. She had some anger to Hazle for putting her through that, but it quickly passed. She couldn't be mad at Hazle after what they went through together in the giant war, but Piper had been assured by Hazle herself that her actions were necessary and that it wouldn't happen again if she could help it. But now, there were no tricks, no mist changing their perspective on reality, and Piper hated herself for having to break the truth to Meg.

Luckily, Jason saved her from having to do just that. He got up from his position and awkwardly placed his hand on Meg's shoulder, ignoring the glares she received. "I know how hard it is to lose a friend. When Leo disappeared, I wanted more than anything to have spent more time with him, you have that chance now, don't waste it."

Meg just stared at him, and finally coming to a decision, she spoke. "I'm going to decide not to say anything to that. Now it's Apollo's turn." she sat down and rested her gaze on him. "Speak." then after having the idea placed into her head, got ambrosia out of the backpack and gave the largest amount a mortal could eat to him. "Eat."

Responding to her command, though not preferring being treated like a dog, he crammed bits of brownie in his mouth one at a time between words and started. "I'm going to need my ukulele please." he requested and continued after being handed it by Crest. "When you get back to Palm Springs, Meg will need to use something of her father's." he looked at her. "The seeds he left behind, they'll help you when they grow up."

"What do they grow into?" she asked.

"Meliai, ancient dryads that are extremely powerful, it would be best if you enter the maze with them, but you don't have to." and to answer Megs confused look, he added. "They're basically killing mashies that are kind of invincible. And you'll have seven of them." Meg smiled with a glint in her eyes that scared even Apollo.

"Crest? Could you help me unstrap my quiver?" when it was done, Apollo, with the help of Crest, shook it upside down and spilled out its contents.

Out spilled about one and a half dozen arrows and a pair of shoes. Apollo picked them up with one hand and handed (ha, I'm so funny. Ha, not really. -Jkoo7) them to Jason. "Here, you guys need these." his hand went over the row of arrows, touching each one, and settled with a blood-soaked one. "Ok ok, fine, just take a chill pill." he wiped off the blood on his T-shirt. (not that it made much of a difference to the shirt.) "Happy?" he asked the arrow. Crest sent a questioning look at the demigods. Piper mouthed 'later' and tried not to looked confused as well.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm not used to not using an arrow in my quiver, but I've never had to carry around a-Hey! You're almost as bad as Ares! Ya, Posidon had to translate for me, I may be amazing, but I can't do everything! Can't you just drop it?" he glared at the arrow. "Yes, I do have a question. No, I don't want to get rid of you, well, I _do _want to get rid of you, but that's not-" he growled. "Fine! I was just asking!" he said as he tossed it into the pile of arrows. "You can be a real jerk sometimes, if you don't know something, just say it."

"Um, Apollo? What are you doing with your ukulele? It's… glowing." Piper asked suddenly, causing the rest of the group to notice the shining instrument.

"Pan did a similar thing with his godly power, it can't be allowed to fade with the entity controlling it. Otherwise, no one would tell the truth, no matter how much they need to. Their words would switch around or they would bend reality to contradict their statement." he coughed. "Basically, the things I was 'the god of' would fall apart and the Fates would have a really hard time, and no one wants that."

Meg scowled, "Maybe _I_ want that, it's not like they did me any favors."

Apollo ignored her and continued. "What I'm doing is transferring my godly entity into this object. Pan did it with Grover, and Percy, and Annabeth, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and Tyson, and... maybe Nico, and I have a lot more realms than him, so I can't just put the powers in… mortal, living objects who will also have to pass on to power when they die." he waved his hand in a 'so…' gesture. "No offense, but as demigods, you don't really have a chance to plan your death. With objects, however, it will be the Fates' problem to ensure their safety."

"Wait, so you're going to put all your godly power in a musical instrument?" Jason asked. "Do we, I don't know, need to duck and cover?"

"No. Maybe. Yes?" he probably was about to shrug his shoulders again but thought better of it. "That _would_ be the case if I put all my energy into it." he waved his hand in the direction of the Arrow of Dodona. "Despite being annoyingly breakable, it's the best choice for the other half of my power. It's an arrow, and it has 'profeciec' powers." he said doing one-handed air quotes. "But he can't seem to answer my question when there is no internet connection."

The group smiled but in the distance, sirens of an ambulance grew closer. Apollo frowned. "They won't be able to do anything, you know that right? I'm only still alive because someone feels they need to fix old wrongs."

"Who?" Jason asked, but deep inside, he could feel his father's presence holding the Fate's shears back.

"Dad once said that only immortals are allowed to stop death, he killed one of my sons to still that law. I suppose he regrets it and feels the need to allow me to do what is needed for the good of Caos." he looked tired and the glow surrounding the ukulele dissipated. He placed it into Jason's hand. "Can you watch over this for me? We are, after all, half brothers. Maybe the power would adjust to you somehow." Jason looked like he wanted to object but closed his mouth. It was Apollo's wish, it should be respected.

Apollo picked up the blood-stained arrow. "Time for round two." he raised his eyebrow. "The best thing I ever heard you say." Apollo briefly glanced at them and spoke. "My children... at Camp Half-Blood, can you tell them thank you for being there for me when I needed it? Tell them… tell them that I was sorry I wasn't able to be more of a father to them." The Demigods nodded, answering the request. But one had a question that needed answering.

"What about New Rome? Don't you have family there?" Piper asked.

Apollo considered this and shook his head. "Greek and Roman for me… Is not very different, but we are not the same. When I die, my Roman form will live on, we are like twins, same, yet different in small ways. When one dies, the other will never be the same, but it will live on. Try your best to explain this to my family, it could- no, _will _get confusing, and awkward if it is not explained to them and they see my counterpart." By now, the ambulance had arrived at the beach and five medics, with great difficulty, ran on the beach sand with a stretcher carried between them. When Apollo noticed this, the glow of the Arrow of Dodona grew brighter, presumingly speeding up the process.

The center medic ran ahead of his companions and took in the scene. He wore a camo jacket and carried a white first aid kit. He had darkish-light skin with a determined look on his face. On top of his head, straight, short, and black hair covered his forehead. He had sparkling blue eyes behind white-rimmed spectacles. He eyes seemed to pause on the weapons the group carried, but shook his head and completed the scanning. He jotted some things down on his notepad. "Who here wants to explain what just happened? Surfing accident? Shards of the exploding boats? Or is that just me, no one else seems to see the bridge of boats going down in flames." Crest shot a confused glance at his new friends, Meg expression mirrored his, but the rest of the group understood that this was a clear-sighted mortal.

"We could explain what happened here, but the rest of your group might not believe or understand," Piper informed him, making the decision for the group. "You're not going crazy, just able to see through the mist. My name's Piper, there's Crest over there with the big ears, Jason and Meg are the ones with glasses, and Apollo's holding the arrow." she finished, gesturing to each one as she spoke.

The medic nodded his head. "Let me guess, you're all demigods going on a quest for the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Norse gods." than to answer their shocked expressions, he added. "Ya, there are Norse and Egyptian gods, pretty mind-blowing for you guys, but there are probably a bunch more different groups of immortal beings." he paused to let them take that in but didn't wait long. "And to answer the question that you are probably going to ask now, yes, I do know I'm a special type of mortal. Known to you guys as 'a clear-sighted mortal'"

A frown appeared on his face. "I… ran into two demigods when I was ten, nice kids, Lucky Tychi children of Caerus, the minor god of opportunity, luck and favorable moments. She saved my life more times than I could ever count. And Horace Amica, son of Philotes, minor goddess of friendship. " the frown switched to a wistful smile. "Heh, gave me the best years of my life during our time together…" he stopped himself and sighed. "But this isn't a story of my life, we can here to help you, and I need to know what I can do as my companions make their way over here." he looked behind him where the other doctors struggled to go back up the beach to the ambulance. "Which could take a while."

"Piper needs a new bandage for her concussion and Apollo…" Jason sighed. "There's not much you can do for him."

The doctor sadly nodded and set to work unwrapping and rewrapping Piper's head. "My name's Gaudium Vitae, Joy of Life, but that's a mouthful, so my friends call me Gray. 'Joy of life' isn't a very manly name, but I took joy in giving things life, I saved a sparrow when I was four years old, the poor thing was freezing in the snow and I wrapped it in a blanket, took care of it for three years before it got eaten by a fox."

"Wait, did your parents change your name?" Crest asked as if the idea shocked him.

"Ya, I went by Sine Nomine, Unnamed, until I earned the name of Gaudium Vitae. My parents liked to be very literal with what things are called." he smiled. "At one time, I had twin siblings and I still hadn't earned my name. It was quite confusing when my mother wanted Sine Nomine to clean the dishes, Sine Nomine to make dinner, and me, Sine Nomine to sweep the floor." the group chuckled along with him as the ambulance pulled next to them, spraying sand in their eyes. The other four doctors pilled out the back. Gray waved to them as he finished wrapping Piper's head.

"Took you long enough, we need to de-infect Apollo's wound after your sand went in it." his companions looked sheepish but rushed over to Apollo and started to examine him while Gray pulled the rest of the group away from the scene. He directed them into the ambulance and sat them down.

"Now, tell me what you've been through." he implored, looking into Meg's eyes. "I can tell you were the closest to Apollo Meg, it's like a feeling, and I know that all of you have just gone through a traumatic experience, but I need to understand what happened. Tell me. What is happening in your world? Are you Greek, Roman, Egyptian, tell me how I can help. Then tell me what are we going to do next."

"We?" Meg spoke for the first time since her curse for the Fates. "Why would you help us? You barely met us, let alone know who we are. We might not even be demigods for all you know. We might be on a quest against the gods, we might be escapees from juvenile. You don't know anything about us." Grey opened his mouth to answer but Meg stopped him. "And what about you? You might be working for Caligula or Nero or Commodus! You might even be a monster for goodness sake! The story about your name could be a lie! Why should we trust you? Why should you trust us? Apollo trusted me after everything I did, and still, I failed him!" tears streamed down her face getting caught by her glasses.

"Piper placed a hand on Meg's shoulder, "You didn't fail Apollo Meg, this isn't your fault." Meg ignored her and continued looking at Grey

He held her gaze. "Your right, there is no reason we should trust each other. But I swear on Styx that I have no motive to even harm you. You're Roman right? The emperors you listed, they were Roman as well I recall. You must know how serious that oath is." Thunder boomed in the distance, signaling his statement to be true. "There, your turn, swear on Styx that you mean no harm to innocent mortals or demigods." then he added a bit reluctantly. "And innocent gods, I guess."

Meg eyed him cautiously and spoke. "I swear on Styx that the only people who we are fighting are the people who deserve it."

He raised his eyebrow, which was getting on Meg's nerves. "That oath is opinionated, like Luke Castellan, thought the gods, mortals, and the 'friends' he betrayed deserved it. Percius Jackson didn't deserve getting bitten by that pit scorpion, a very painful way to die by the way, yet Luke thought he deserved it for prolonging the rise of Kronos, Luke did it and still had a some-what clear conscience, not at all affected by his attempted murder of a child. Might I go on?" and when Meg, Jason, and Piper, shook their heads, (Crest was just looking confused, he didn't know who Percy Jackson was. Really sad, I know, but I guess it's good for him not to have met Percy. Crest is, after all, a monster. -Jkoo7) he continued. "Now, want to try that again? Or I won't be able to help you. I did my part. Promises mean a lot to me, so if I make one, I mean it." he said looking into Meg's eyes.

Meg's eyes narrowed into slits but nodded her head. "Fine, I swear on Styx that we are doing this 'quest' for the good of the world, or I suppose the good of Olympian gods. There are three, immortal emperors that are trying to rule the world." she tilted her head, pondering that information. "Well, I don't really understand what they are doing. They are trying to get all of the Oracles, We freed two already, And we need to enter the labyrinth to free the third."

Piper coughed into her fist, gaining the group's attention. "The emperors are called the Triumvirate Holdings, three Roman emperors who make money off of demigod's troubles. They gave Octavian catapults to attack Camp Half-Blood and-"

"Funded Luke's army-of course!" than to answer the group's questioning looks, he cleared his throat and added. "I like finding things out on my own, sorry for the interruption."

"Actually, that's all we really know for sure, besides the fact that they're trying to kill Apollo, are working with that snake Python,(Ha, aren't I funny?-Jkoo7) are attacking New Rome, and most of their plans involve Apollo, which is… unfortunate." Piper finished.

"He's dying, you know that right?" Gray asked them. " If we got here immediately, we might have been able to do something, but it's too late for anything, I'm sorry." he looked at Meg. "You understand that right?"

Meg said nothing as she looked at the floor of the ambulance. Then, suddenly, she lunged toward Gray, arms outstretched, angled toward his neck.

And hugged him.

It was so surprising, so unexpected, no one knew what to do next. But Gray recovered quickly and hugged her back in kind.

"I'm sorry Meg. I'm so sorry. We could' ve-" but Gray was stopped abruptly when Meg's arms squeezed harder, trapping his words in his lungs.

"It's okay Gray, I know. It wasn't your fault," she spoke, not letting go, but loosening her hold. "I'm gonna be okay." and when she gave the reason why no one disagreed. "I'm going to make Caligula, Nero, and Commodus pay for everyone they hurt."

**Hey everyone! I'm alive!**

**And I'm sorry for taking a month to complete this. But Hey! I got a longer chapter in. So that will hopefully make up for it, right?**

**Heh, right guys?**

**I'm trying to go through the five stages of grief with Meg, but instead of depression, I'm swapping that with another round of anger.**

**Meg's being rebellious now, which isn't that surprising. She's an angry girl. ;( ;l ;)**

**I hope you like my introduction to Gray, and the might-be promise of a backstory for him. ;)**

**As always, keep smiling, and have a good day. Whoever you are.**

**-Jkoo7**


	5. The Pelt

**Ok, so I already wrote this chapter. (mostly) I Just needed to add a little more and actually type it onto the computer. I'm sure you guys can guess what this chapter is about and who is the mysterious children if you go back a chapter. But I won't say it out loud. You have to do it yourself. ;)**

**Thank you to 'shegotofftheplane' and 'Elmo 3' for your reviews and support. They really made me smile.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter but while you're waiting, I would like to introduce 'True Power' by 8DemigodRunner8,' really good story. And It's finished!**

**Third POV**

**Chapter 5**

**The Pelt**

The train rails on the tracks rattled and the subway rushed on them. It was such a normal vehicle doing it's routine. You would never expect it to be such great assistance to two children that barely had any normality in their lives. The two children sat on their benches, in a barely empty train car. They were both around 14, but like so many of their kind, they saw too many things to be called 'kids.' The only 'innocents' around them were an old lady taking a nap and a nice-looking dad with his wife playing T_suro_ while their first-grader slept on the father's lap. The two only supposed that they were 'innocents' because one of them had an almost full-proof way of knowing that they weren't monsters, immortal, or any type of weird Greek/Roman thing that was out to get them.

The girl was a brunette, with freckles covering her light skin. She had soft blue eyes, the type that could promise that everything would be okay, but also strike fear and regret whenever you offended their master. She had a light green four-leaf clover bracelet that went well with her jeans and turquoise shirt. She had two pig-tails that went down to her shoulders. Around her waist, a jeweled belt was snugly wrapped around. She was looking out the window with a blank expression. Not seeming to notice the boy staring across the aisle at her.

He had a grin on his face as he stared at her, the type of smile that grows larger when you look at them. The boy had tossed black hair to match his beige-colored skin. Much like his companion, his eyes were blue but contained more humor than the girl. He wore torn sneakers, jeans, and a red t-shirt. He twirled a golden bracelet around his finger like a lasso. On his lap, an army jacket was carelessly rolled up. Every so often the boy would seem to just notice it and look longingly at his companion. When she wouldn't look at him and continue looking out the window, he would sigh and resume fiddling with his bracelet.

The girl decided to make the first move.

She looked down at her bracelet, seeming to gather her thoughts and spoke.

"We need to talk about what happened at the lake." the words seemed alien, after the extended silence. The boy had a look of surprise on his face but it was quickly replaced by mischief.

"You finally gonna tell me why you threw away that rock I gave you?" his grin morphed into a mock-pout. "I gave it to you so you could give it to people you trust. I didn't know that you would ever trust something that was about to eat us."

She glared at him, ensuring that he got the message that she needed him to be serious right now. "You were in its mouth! I hit its eye with the closest thing I could grab!" she sighed. "But that's not important right now. I need you to-"

"You want the Neamon Lion pelt? Here!" he tossed the coat on his lap at her face, relieved to finally be rid of it. It dropped into the girl's lap revealing her very confused but frustrated expression.

"No!- Yes. I believe we do need to decide who is wearing this, but that wasn't what I-"

"You beat that lion. You get the spoils of war. Put. It. On."

"I didn't beat it! You're the one who stabbed its mouth!"

"You hit its eye! I would have been lion chow if not for you!" his smile evaporating to a look of absolute seriousness.

She scowled. "Why are you being like this? Usually, you're always the one who wants the 'victor prises' as you call them. Why is this time any different? Just take the pelt. You need it more than I do."

He flinched as if she smacked him in the face. "You're not the only one here with the blood of an immortal. Why do you treat me as if I'm a piece of paper sometimes? I can do anything you can do. I can be anything you can be. I survived-"

"I don't treat you like paper. And I don't doubt that you are one of the most talented people on this planet. But it doesn't change the fact that you didn't inherit powers from your immortal family. It doesn't change the fact that you can't eat ambrosia. Or how you can't drink nectar. Remember what dad said? If you eat them, you'll burn up before the injuries kill you. You won't be able to have that healing option if you were seriously injured. The pelt would help protect you from getting hurt in the first place. I'm able to have the food of the gods because I have the blood of the gods. But fate did not pick you to be as fortunate." She knew she won when the boy looked down at his feet and seemed to have nothing else to say.

She was wrong.

A smile crept onto his face and he scoffed. "You planned this entire conversation, didn't you?" he looked up at her and she answered by blushing and looking away.

"It's not that easy to plan conversations with you. You're just so-" she was cut off when her companion pecked her cheek. "-predictable."

He reached out and retrieved the pelt. "Fine, you win. But I'm only doing this for you," he stated as he wrapped the pelt around him. "But I must say, as ridiculous as this makes me look, it is quite comfy." He smiled mischievously at the still shocked face of his companion. "Are you sure you don't want- Nah, you girls are too big on your make-up, and dresses, and clothes, and ear-rings, and looks…" he droned off. "That's probably the _real_ reason you don't want this. It would mess with your 'I'm so lucky' look. You could hardly be lucky if it looked like you had been eaten by a lion." he frowned when he noticed her still shocked face. "Wow, you aren't normally this quiet when I'm talking to you, nice to know, but seriously, I'm not going to be the permanent owner of this thing right? We're going to be sharing this thing." He raised his eyebrow at her still silent face.

"I'm... gonna take that as a yes? Jeez, girl, you're scaring me here. Are you ok?"

Silence.

"You could at least blink a few times."

Silence… then a blink.

"Okay…. I'm gonna go ask the conductor when's our next transfer. Stay put alright?" He got up out of his chair and started towards the front of the train. But as he went past his companion…

"Wait," he stopped and looked at her. There was no sign of humor on it, but there was only dread and nervousness. What she was about to say will be hard on them both. "The pelt wasn't what we needed to talk about."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"We need to talk about what happened with Horace."

His face fell. His eyes narrowed down to slits. "No," His voice was soft, quiet. The word was simple, just an 'n' and an 'o', but with the right tone of voice, it left no room for argument. "No, we don't." He stated and stormed down the aisle.

**Ok, I realize that this chapter is really short, but I wanted to give you guys something to think about while I type up the next chapter. I'll try to post it sometime, but school starts today and I'm working on this 15 min. before I have to leave.**


	6. Take a Breather

**Hey guys. (And gals)**

**This chapter is helping me go into the next chapter so I guess you could call this a filler chapter.**

**I'm sorry for not updating lately, but school got in the way.**

**It is nice to be writing again.**

Dark.

It was an eerie thing to feel, with being around noise for so long silence is unsettling.

I can't explain it, but I felt everywhere, yet nowhere. I was in limbo, but I knew exactly where I was.

I don't know how long I stayed like that, but like Tartarus, time moved differently. And then suddenly, I wasn't there anymore. Instead, I was walking through a corridor. It looked oddly familiar. Then I suddenly remembered. It was Olympus's family-reunion room. And yes, it is as big as it sounds. Of course, it was never completely used, like, ever.

Grandpa Kronos, Uranus, the Titans, Gaia, the Giants, and a bunch more 'non-Olympus' will probably never attend a family reunion. In fact, I don't know why it was made in the first place.

I was walking along with three glowing figures, one glowing pink, and two glowing red. One of the red ones was more angry, while the other one was more gentle and careful. It was quite obvious who they were. They were Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. I could only see the backs of their heads, so I walked up alongside them. Their expressions were sad, and they didn't seem to be thinking in the present with a far-away look in their eyes.

"Where might you be going?" I asked them, but they continued walking and ignored my question, so I repeated the topic. When they again ignored me, I opened my mouth to raise my voice at them but realized that we were no longer alone.

Glowing figures crowded the hall around us. All carrying the same distant look in their eyes. There was no chatter, the only sound was their feet stepping on the stone tiles of the floor. Every one of them was carrying a light of some sort, let it be a candle, lantern, or raw flame. There was a light-blue flash and I saw that it was coming from Zeus's hand, obviously, he was using his lightning as his light source. My face brightened at the prospect of seeing my father again, and I maneuvered my way through the crowd in his direction.

He happened to be at the front of the line, leading it. Always leading my father is. I walk alongside him and just stare at him, waiting to see how long before he realized I was starring at him.

The silence continued all the way through the corridor, without anyone talking, without Dad meeting my eyes. So I decided to break the silence. I opened my mouth to take a breath, to speak to my father, to voice the questions crowding my mind. But then I realized something.

Something that stopped me in my tracks.

I opened my mouth again, trying to take a breath, to calm my racing heart.

Or lack thereof.

_I can't breathe. My heart isn't beating._

_What's going on? _

_I should be dead! I need to breathe!_

I opened my mouth, trying desperately to fill my lungs with air. I was panicking, That last thought going through my head, over and over.

_I should be dead._

_I should be dead._

_I should be dead._

_I need to breathe!_

Then I stopped. _I __should_ _be dead. _I was sure that if my heart was beating, my next thought would have stopped it.

_I __am_ _dead._

**Your welcome for this, but I actually already wrote most of the next chapter so it should be soon before the next one.**

**The only problem is getting to it.**

**And here's thanks to 'Franzieletric' and 'OceanLover4712' for the support. I know I say this a lot, but I really appreciate it.**

**I hope you're having a good day and keep smiling!**

**-Jkoo7**

**P.s.**

'**Violets are blue,**

**Roses are red, **

**Nico buys happy meals for the dead.'**

**That just made my day and it makes me smile.**

**I'm totally going to put that on every Valentine's note I give out.**

**(Cue evil Percy Jackson laughter)**


	7. Attending My own Funeral

**Hey, This chapter Might be a little confusing, and I'm sorry.**

**And here's to 'Lance Andrei Fanio', 'FierySaphire', and 'OceanLover4712' for joining our little group. (Nice username btw.)**

**And you know what? I would really appreciate it if I could read your thoughts or this story. If you laughed at certain parts, or what I should add. It would really help me.**

**But I got the inspiration for this when I thought if Pan ever got a funeral. And how immortals would do this. I, myself, have been to a funeral. My uncle, Seth. And so I would like to dedicate this chapter to him as well as my great grandfather, who was an amazing man. I didn't go to his funeral because Mom didn't want us to miss any school because we spent our break with Seth's funeral. I wish I went, but he was my mom's grandpa, so she needed some time alone.**

**They died a couple of years ago, but I still miss them.**

It was a dark room, with the only light source being candles hung on the walls. It was circular, filled with chairs, and a platform at the front. On the platform, there were twelve seats, with ten of them slightly less grand than the last two. I recognized the latter as my father's throne, as well as my sister's, but the other one was covered in lion pelts. I realized who it belonged to but found it strange on why it was covered with the skins, as my mother was so fond of wolves.

It took a long time for me to calm down. And even longer for the entire congregation to find a seat for themselves. There was a... How should I put this? fisted argument? On who might sit next to Aphrodite. But since Hephsteus and she were already divorced, it was not long before someone reminded him and sent the very flustered immortal packing. But, unseen by others, the goddess and the blacksmith shared a disappointed look with each other. But, before Ares could notice anything, they reluctantly flicked their heads away and never looked back.

_I wonder what's that about. _I thought. It was a very well known fact Aphrodite hated being a wife to Hephesteus and gladly accepted Ares instead. The two had shared an unrelenting grudge since my predecessor ratted Aphres (Hey! Immortals make ship names to!) away to an enraged Hephsteus. Now, it seemed that the feelings of affection had returned to the blacksmith. I probably would've followed Hephsteus to see if it would reveal what sparked their emotions if a voice thundered **(haha-Jkoo7)** across the arena.

"_Sit down and shut up!_" I looked over to see my father sitting on his throne next to my mother, who didn't seem too happy about the arrangement. The room quickly quieted down as people 'sat down and shut up.' My mother glared at my father before standing up.

"I would like to thank you all for coming. It seems too soon after our last… gathering for Pan." there was a murmur of agreement over this, but not wanting to risk Zeus's wrath, it was very quiet.

My mother seemed unsure about what to say next, which was understandable. It's not like immortals, beings who can't die, would ever be prepared for this. "Since we have not had much experience with this," she continued, voicing my thoughts, "It became somewhat of a challenge for us to figure out our own way to do this and The Muses have settled on a preferred tradition they found in their memories of ideas of mortals. So, in turn, they made this presentation for us." as she spoke, doors on the side of the thrones opened and all nine muses filled out in a single file line. (well, as close as they could get with Terpsichore dancing and skipping every few steps)

I was excited to see what was going to be said. Pan's funeral had a beautiful speech and a planting ceremony. We all planted a plant and wrote on a tag attached to it of what Pan reminded us of. Hermes couldn't go one day without breaking down into tears at the sight of a satyr. He had a tag that was over two-hundred pages long. Thinking about this, I glanced at my father, to see if he were having similar emotions.

But no. Not one tear was seen on his face.

Instead, a look of complete satisfaction rested there.

The muses got into position, poses of perfection, and expressions of sadness and grief. One opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Zeus got out of his chair, went down the stairs of the podium, and made his way to the exit.

He didn't even look back.

**Ok, It's been months since my last update. And this is the shortest chapter yet. But I spent hours trying to figure out how the funeral should go. As I said, I had it written out, but that included a very long speech the muses gave and I just didn't want to type all that.**

**Yes, I'm lazy. But I really don't know what to do right now. :(**

**I don't know how this should go, I'm sorry. **

**I really wanted this to be the story I finished, but I just don't know what to do right now.**

**Please send help.**

**I guess I could tell you that it basically goes how it really goes in the books, but Meg is more distant, it's Grey instead of Apollo, Piper takes the body to Olympus, and Leo and Calypso live a happy life. And Jason goes back to school.**

**Farewell until I can figure out how the rest of this book goes.**

**I really hope something comes to me.**

**If nothing does, I'm really sorry.**

**Hopefully sometime soon,**

**-Jkoo7**


	8. The Final Goodbye

**Ok. Inspiration hit me. And I was like:**

**Me: OW! What was that for?**

**Inspiration: You can't just do that to those readers! They deserve an ending!**

**Me: But what am I supposed to do? I can't figure out how to continue this!**

**Inspiration: Then end it.**

**Me: How?**

**Inspiration: .shows idea.**

**Me: …**

**Me: I love it.**

**Inspiration: Thank you.**

**Me: Why didn't you bring this to me earlier? Did you have to let me write that sappy good-bye and stuff?**

**Inspiration: .shrugs shoulders. **

—

**The Final Goodbye**

Meg slumped down onto the seat in the plane, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around it. The air trapped inside of the cushion exited, blowing air out. It made a tiny squeak, which would have made her grin.

Not today.

Today wasn't the time for happiness, It wasn't the time for anger like the last few hours after-

Meg stopped herself before letting her mind wander _there_. But she knew that she had to go there sometime. It would happen eventually. It always did. After her father, after the griffin family, after the home of her childhood. There was no escape.

At least… At least she could control when it would happen if she went there now, she wouldn't have to worry about going there in the middle of a fight when the slightest hesitation could leave her dead. Or worse, _wounded_.

Meg _hated _being wounded. When you were hurt, you were left at the mercy of those around you. Forced to rely on others for everything. And if it was fatal, the medics and doctors at best would kill you, ending your pain. But some poor fools thought that they could save you, making promises they wouldn't be able to keep. Making you suffer longer, maybe even giving you a glimmer of hope that you, despite everything, would make it. Leaving you with the only feeling of denial, and hope.

Only to let you down in the end. Wondering why you suffered through all that pain, just to die. _That's _why she hated being wounded. The people that believed you would make it. And then getting angry at you for making them believe that you would survive.

Maybe that's why she liked Grey so much.

Grey didn't lead Meg into a false hope that Apollo would make it. He was direct, yet understanding. When Meg started to go… _there, _Grey would grab her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and when their eyes met, she knew that if she needed time before moving on, he would get her time. Of course, she didn't like Grey in a like-like way, he was way too old for her. But he started to like him like a brother, like Apollo.

"_Now." _her mind told her. "_Now is the right time, let your walls down Meg, it's ok, your friends are here, they can help you. You just have to let you." _  
Jason, Piper, and Crest chose just that moment to walk into the plane. Meg hadn't noticed that she was staring out the window, but she was, the airport was busy today, with giant planes landing on the runway, while others escaped into the air, carrying whatever they wanted, able to go whenever they needed.

"Meg, Leo's outside, do you want to talk with him?" Piper asked, concern lacing every word. "He says that he has something for you," she added when Meg refused to acknowledge her.

"The flying dragon is metal, yet it is able to fly without its weight bringing it crashing to the ground, it is very fascinating," Crest noted. "It makes beautiful creaks and squeaks. The Latino is able to understand them, he said that he might be able to teach me the words of the dragon someday, 'when this big workshop mess is sorted out.'" he made air quotes.

"I- I don't have to go back to school Meg," Jason stated a bit reluctantly. "If you want, I could go with you. Reyna and the rest of New Rome are going to need all the help it can get after all. Besides, she wouldn't know you, or Grey, or crest, and you're going to need someone she's fam-"

"It's okay Jason, go learn about Bill Shakespeare, or whatever. We'll be fine. Besides, you went up against freaking _Gaea _with nothing but 7 of the most powerful demigods, a dragon, the Olympian gods, and a bloody nose." Meg looked at them and pointed to her own nose, then rested her thumb on her collarbone. "This should be a breeze, the world's got me, Peaches, New Rome, and Grey."

" HA! Still got that spirit, eh mi amigo?" Leo said, grinning as he appeared at the doorway.

"Hey Leo, how's Festus?" Meg said as he pushed past the rest of his friends and sliding into the seat next to her.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, needs a bit of oiling, nothing much." his grin evaporated, leaving a face of total seriousness. Meg dropped his gaze, but that didn't stop him from resting his hand on her shoulder. "But…" he said, tapping her nose. "That's not what you need, is it?"

That's when everything broke down. The dam holding her tears back broke, cascading down her face as she tried to get the words out. " I need… I need Apollo- I need to see him smile again. I… I need him to play a song and make everything better. I need him to hug me tight, to tell me that we'll be able to do it. I need to be able to annoy him to pieces when he's trying to be serious. I need to get him the hon-ey cakes he wanted." Meg was hiccuping now, gasping for air.

"I need to punch him in the arm when he's being an _idiot…_" _I'm making a fool of myself._ she thought. But she didn't care. She needed this. "I need to be able to boss him around again… He needs to be there so I can find someone to peel _vege-tables._" she didn't know what she was doing right now. Was she crying? Laughing? Did it matter? "I need to tell him that I'm sorry for trusting my stepfather. I need to tell him that he can go to _Tartarus _for all I care. I need to make the Triumvirate pay for everything that they did. _I need Apollo alive."_

The tears wouldn't stop, not even when Leo wrapped his arms around her like a child, not even when the rest of the group joined in, with Coach Hedge and Mellie, holding their own little Chuck Hedge. Meg didn't know when it would end, or how long it would go on for. But for now, nothing else mattered.

It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes before the flight captain came in to announce that they were about to leave soon. But it wasn't until the intercom said that there were only ten minutes until take-off that they started to leave.

"I hate to leave you like this Meg, but Chuck isn't going to be happy if he wakes up from his nap to find his parents on a plane," Mellie explained, but she gave Meg one last squeeze before walking away with Hedge.

Crest couldn't have looked more awkward as he said that he needed to help the pilot bring in their 'luggage'. Meg didn't know what he was talking about, but she didn't have the strength to press him on it.

"I need to get Jason to school before leaving," Piper said, sharing a glance with Leo. "Don't take too long. We still need to catch up with you before we split ways."

Leo grinned, still not letting go of Meg as Piper dragged Jason and Grey out with her. The latter looking extremely confused as to why he needed to leave but didn't object. He simply cast one concerned glance in her direction, before going down the strange moveable-staircase that helped them into the plane.

It was just Leo and her on the plane. And Meg didn't know why he needed some time with her. They barely knew each other, with just a brief time together before splitting ways. But, she did respect the imp-ish boy. Even though he could be such a pain sometimes.

"You're probably wondering why I needed some time with you," he said, no doubt reading her thoughts. "And, as a child of Hephaestus, I'm probably not the best person to talk about… this. But," he said, pulling out a small, rectangular, box from his pocket and opening it. Inside, were full black glasses, with clear lenses, and ruby screws and hinges on the side. Leo awkwardly plucked them out of the case and held them out to her.

"Ummm they're glasses. I was able to talk with Heracles on our quest to stop Gaea and ask him about Percy's sword, Riptide," he explained.

Meg raised her eyebrow. "So… this can turn into a pen?" she asked, wiping away the liquid remains of tears on her face.

Leo chuckled. "No. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to add that feature. I did, however, have time to add the 'magic tracking feature' and it being able to turn into a small bronze knife. But I doubt that you should go into a battle without glasses, so I would advise not to use it if you have the choice."

Meg took the box out of his hand, put her own glasses inside of it, and plopped the new ones into place. She blinked, getting used to there not being cracks on the glass. _(It's never easy trying to keep them fixed, so she never tried to repair them.)_ They were extremely light, and the red-on-black was a good mix, but she wasn't that weird-goth-boy that was dating Apollo's son. She still wasn't sure how to feel about him.

She took them off and was about to explain this to Leo, probably going to say something along the lines of 'I know I just cried for 15-minutes straight, but that doesn't mean I'm goth,' when she noticed that the rubies had turned the color pink, the rim had turned an amber color, but the temples were still black.

"Oh. Right. Didn't tell you about that," Leo noted, scratching the back of his head and averting her gaze with a face that Meg put between 'please-don't -kill' me and 'I am so dead.' "Ummm, well, you see… Apollo mentioned how it's so hard to tell what you're feeling… so, I… um, how should I put this?" he looked her in the eyes and then immediately dropped her gaze and fidgeted with his fingers. "I… made them into a large mood-ring? But mood rings only tell you one of your emotions, so I made a what? A tri-mood-ring? Is that what I should call it? Maybe Mood-glasses would be a better name for it. Oh! Or maybe Leo-enses? I like the sound of that." he looked at her face, to check if she was mad at him or not.

"_Are you mad at him?"_ Meg asked herself. But of course, Meg's mind never answered her questions when she needed it to. "_Well, only one way to find out."_ she thought, "_But of course, there is always more than one way to find something out." _her mind countered.

She ignored her brain like always and looked at the 'Leo-enses' in her fingers. She pressed her finger into the item, and the colors changed, again, from red and black, to full-on amber.

She pointed at the color. "Didn't you make a color-key or something?" she asked him. He gave her a relieved smile and nodded. Leo reached into his tool-belt and pulled a small slip of paper. It was mostly straight-forward if the writing wasn't messed up. She mentioned this to him and he blushed.

"I wrote this up on the flight here, sorry the writing is a little smudged, Festus vibrated the entire way," Leo explained.

Meg smiled, placing the paper in the box with her old glasses. "It's perfect Leo, thank you. I didn't realize how much I needed this. I guess being with friends isn't so bad after all."

Leo's grin was the biggest she'd seen as he hugged her for the last time in a probably long while. He made her promise that she would IM him when the mess was over and he promised that when she did, he would come over with all the nacho cheese he could find. _(Meg didn't really understand that, but he seemed to find that funny.)_ And then he left.

Not long after, Grey and Crest entered the building. The latter, dipping his bandaged pointer, middle, ring, and pinky fingers on his left hand in a cup of water.

"How is it, that for such small things," Crest started, "THAT FIGURES MUST HURT SO MUCH?!"

"Easy there Crest, stressing them too much isn't good," Grey noted, sitting down in a seat. "Besides, you should feel lucky that it was only your left hand, though I don't know why you would even try to lift it with only one hand." but Crest only huffed and plopped down into his own seat.

"What's this all about?" Meg asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Crest tried to lift Apollo's coffin with one hand, no help, and expected to be Heracles," Grey explained, provoking a glare from the pandos in question.

"The coffin is here? How are we supposed to get it to Camp-Half-Blood?" Meg asked, not liking the idea of flying in the air with a dead body of a son of the sky god.

Grey shrugged his shoulders, "Piper got the pilot to agree to fly it over to Long-Island. Wasn't too hard, he said that he needed to practice and it should be only about a 15 and a half-hour flight, and that's including coming back and going to San Francisco. And after like, a hundred tries, we were able to get a short IM to Chiron and give him the short version of what happened. He's going to pick _it_ up and take it back to camp for the funeral."

Meg nodded her head, understanding. Unfortunately, that would mean that she would have to miss it, something she wasn't sure she was okay with doing.

"Wow, I thought being free from a body would be different." A voice sounded near the front of the plane. A middle-sized boy with blond hair and dark brown eyes was poking his cheeks in a chair two feet away from Meg. "I mean, I thought I would at least be able to push my fingers through the couch, but I can't 'faze-shift' at all." He had a transparent quiver over his shoulder and a see-through bow leaning on the chair that held his royal bum. His skin was a bronze color, but Meg could see through it quite well like Casper the friendly ghost, and he was wearing a green shirt with jeans.

Sitting on a chair of the plane was a ghost.

"I mean, coming back, I figured that I would be either Apollo #1, or Apollo #Lester, but I guess I'm a little bit of a mix between them, which makes sense I guess, I wasn't really Apollo when I died, but I wasn't really Leaster when I lived, which makes no sense, yet sense at the same time. And _that_ doesn't make sense and makes sense at the same time and-" he glanced at the three figures gaping at him, speechless.

Sitting on the chair was Apollo in all his Lester-Papadopoulos-ness.

_Questioning_

"I'm rambling aren't I?" he asked them.

_Contemplating the next move._

"I-um- figured that I could get where everyone would be to deliver some news, but I guess I'll have to settle for you three."

_Ideas start forming._

"Ok, this might be a bad time-no-it probably is, but the-uh- the Olympian gods? Ya, they're going to war with each other."

_Making a decision_

"Well, It's not a free-for-all, but a bunch of gods isn't agreeing with the way Zeus rules, so my mother is starting a revolution to overthrow him, and so there's like a split between the gods, it's not even, Zeus is severely outnumbered."

_Conclusion_

"I doubt he even has a chance against my mother's group, but Athena's on his side and based on Grandmother Earth's millennia-old prophecy about her over-throwing Zeus one day, I doubt Zeus is going to lose, but she might be a spy for Mom's cause, so I can't really see how this is going to play out."

Meg stood up, stepped into range, and smacked his face with her closed hand.

_Error._

The fist passed through Apollo Papadopoulos' face, throwing Meg off-balance, causing her to fall on the chair he was sitting on, bruising her chest, _(that smacked against the lip of the chair)_ elbow, _(that hit the back of the chair)_ and knuckles. _(that collided with the arm-rests.)_

"_**OWWWWWWWW!**_" Meg exclaimed, rubbing her elbow. The gosh-darn funny-bone always seemed to be in the worst possible place and ending up getting hit at the worst, most unexpected times.

At least Apollo had the dignity to look ashamed.

"Meg! Are you ok?"

"Yes, I just screamed because of the monster standing behind you with a knife."

Apollo obviously couldn't sense the sarcasm, because he dropped to the ground, grabbed his bow, notched an arrow, and fired at the empty space behind him, _(or in front of him, because he was now facing the direction)_ all in a matter of milliseconds. He had an extremely frightened expression and notched another arrow into his bowstring.

"Be careful, whatever you saw seems to have a vanishing ability. Very deadly," he noted, but Meg ruined a perfectly good chance at a prank by bursting out laughing. Apollo raised an eyebrow at her, but quickly noticed that she was rubbing her elbow, and without another word, he dropped his bow, and with a simple touch,_(well, not really a touch, but his 'dam' hologram_ _came as close as it could)_ the pain went away. He then examined her bruised knuckles and no pain dared to invade them.

"Sorry about the hurt you went through just to give me a hug Meg," he apologized, and Meg raised her eyebrow, but decided not to say anything. "And I'm really sorry about the whole dying thing. But, I can't be _truly_ _really _sorry unless I try to make it better. And since I can't come back to life, Pan and Asteri helped me get here to warn you about the whole 'immortal war' and stuff, so I guess-"

"WHAT THE HECK DO YOU MEAN 'IMMORTAL WAR?'" Grey shouted, being his confused self. But Grey gathering up his resolve, took a calming breath, and looking a lot less 'freaked out,' and spoke again. "Hi, I'm Grey, I don't believe we had a chance to meet with each other when you died, but might you tell me how this revolution started?"

Apollo sighed, but he sat down and began his tale.

"It all started when Zeus cut us off from demigods, and many of us wanted to help, so the brave ones that wanted to do something about it actually did something. Zeus got mad and- let's say 'grounded'- my sister and I. We had to stay on Delos and were unable to attend to our duties. My sister was unable to help her hunters, and I was unable to protect my oracle Delphi from Python's grasp-or lack of one. However, after the heroes of Olympus, or the seven if you wish, was able to confront Gaea and defeat the giants, Zeus decided that someone needed to be punished, and I was, unfortunately, the lucky one.."

"Why would you be punished?" Crest asked.

"I was punished because of a grave mistake that I encouraged Octavion to make. And I regret how so many demigods died because of my actions. Also, Zeus decided to shoot the messenger's master for giving out the prophecy 'too early.' Which doesn't make any sense, because prophecies don't _cause _things to happen, they just _predict _things are going to happen."

"And the rest of the immortals understood that, and knew it wasn't right," Grey observed, nodding.

Apollo nodded along with him. "That was true for some of them, but the big thing that set them off was what my _father _did when I died." he corrected Grey, scowling at the ground. "He didn't even stay for my funeral. And don't tell me it was because of grief because when my mother confronted him about it, he said that a funeral was pointless, he...he called me an '_example.'_" Apollo barely whispered the word. "He said that as far as he was concerned, I should have stayed on Delos, that way I wouldn't be able to ruin anything." his voice cracked, but he tried to cover it up with a cough.

"My mother became enraged, and she claimed that he didn't deserve to be king and that after how he treated his problems and allies, then no one would support him any longer. He laughed, and told her to 'bring it on.' But the next day, Zeus was chased from Olympus with the few supporters he had, and mom planned to: 'give him a dumb-donkey load of payback when they got their hands on him.'" he shrugged his shoulders. "Hera opted for cutting Zeus' skull open with Kronos' scythe, freeing Metis, then having everyone have their own revenge on the bad things Zeus did to them. I'm pretty sure everyone agreed with her, it _is _fair."

"What about his supporters?" Meg asked.

Apollo grinned, but it looked remorseful. "They were actually very thorough with their ideas. Each idea for punishments was to show how selfish, underqualified and unworthy Zeus was as a leader. They're planning to use them as 'stay-ins' for Zeus' punishments."

"Stay-ins?" Crest asked, "What are those?"

His grin turned into a grimace. "Once they capture Zeus and his allies, people are going to be putting him through a lot of payback. But, if Zeus doesn't want to go through one of the 'sessions,' he is able to choose one of his allies to go through the pain for him for one day."

Grey nodded but wore a deep frown on his face. "Ingenious, if Zeus picks on of his allies to go through his torcher, then they will grow to hate him for betraying them and will be less likely to attempt freeing him if the chance arises."

"So a bunch of beings who are just being loyal to their king are going to get hurt." he buried his face in his hands, sighing. "And it's all because of me."

Meg then attempted to pat his back, but her hand just passed through, so she just said: "It's not your fault Apollo. Besides, that's only if Zeus chooses them, so that means that he's going to be the one at fault, no one else."

"Also, I don't think Zeus was that good of a leader," Grey added. And when Apollo looked at him and raised his eyebrow at him, he continued. "I mean, ya, at least he didn't eat his children, but Zeus ate his _wife._ Not only that, but he's probably the least faithful husband of all time. And ya, I get the whole 'immortality' gives you guys a bunch of-erm- _opportunities,_ but you guys could at least _try _to resist. I know that Kronos and Uranus did. And Zeus hasn't been fair. Did Nico tell you what happened to his family? And what about Metis? She freaking betrayed her _father_ for Zeus. And it took, what? A week for him to move onto Hera? Not to mention that she's still inside his head because he '_still needed her'_" Grey shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just saying that he probably deserves what's coming to him."

Crest nodded his head. "I agree with the medic, but the last time there was a mutiny of the king, I don't remember it going well for you or your teammates." he scratched his chin. "I remember you and Posidon becoming mortals for a time and Hera being hanged over the entry to Chaos in chains, with Zeus being tempted to drop her into it and kill off Hera once and for all." He met Apollo's eyes. "But I can't remember what happened to Athena."

Apollo growled. "Talked him out of punishing her, without even trying to help us out. Figures, that's probably why she doesn't want to get on Zeus' bad side again." a grin popped on his face. "Can't wait to see the look on her face when he picks his 'favorite child' as a stay-in. I hope that Poseidon has his turn on her. The little snake did a lot of bad stuff to Poseidon, and I think he would-" Apollo's form flickered.

"What was that?" Meg asked, pressing her lips together in concern.

"Dang, Asteri's spell is wearing off, I have about a minute left, so I should probably wrap this up."

Grey raised an eyebrow. "Who's Asteri?"

Apollo grinned. " You really think that there hasn't been more than one faded immortal? She's actually the creator of Starlight, she's cool, but she won't tell anyone how she got faded. Which is a bit suspicious, but a lot of immortals don't like to talk about that. Some of them faded before I was born, and-" his form glitched again.

"You're leaving? Just like that?" Meg's face was pure anger for about two seconds before the rage dissipated. A sigh came out of her mouth. "I- I just want to say that Jason, Leo, Piper, and the plants at Palm Springs are really grateful for what you did. Jason and Piper…" Meg sighed again. "After you died, it suddenly became so… real for everyone. Jason kept mentioning how he should've tried harder with the funnels, and Piper wouldn't stop saying how she should've done something that helped you instead of lying on the floor like a heap of rags." Meg met Apollo's eyes. "You should probably visit them. Especially Jason. He took it the worst out of the newbies." she gestured toward Grey and Crest. "Also, if you can, tell Pan that he needs to visit Grover. The dang satyr needs some morality boost right about now."

Apollo grinned and nodded. "I'll sure try." And then, with a last glitch, he waved good-bye and vanished.

"Well," Grey noted. "That was interesting, not the weirdest I've seen, but still, pretty weird."

"Ya, but that was a good weird right? Not _we're-all-going-to-die _type of weird? Is that even allowed?" Crest asked, still probably new to the 'adventure dangers' yet.

"Ya, that was a good weird Crest, don't worry," Meg said, standing up and grabbing a Z-up from the icebox. "We are all entitled to a little bit of good weird in our lives."

**So that's it!**

**Hopefully, you all liked it and won't hate me for that ending, but at least it is one! :)**

**I had a lot of fun writing this, and I loved finally finishing a story for once.**

**Who knows? I might even share some of my elementary-school stories with you guys. (they're not very good)**

**Or, as someone suggested, I might do a sequel. :D**

**As always, keep smiling, and I'll see you all later.**

**-Jkoo7**

****(I would also like to thank ArtJunkyard for your support as well as a fellow fiction writer Carolyn3605, thanks for all your support)****

****(p.s. as of right now, 1,940 people have looked at my story, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!)****


	9. Sequel!

The sequel's out everybody!

Sorry, it took longer than expected.

Also, I put the same story on Wattpad if you even want to know.

Have a good day guys!

-Jkoo7 (18-12-19)


End file.
